• Amazon has launched MLB.TV on Prime Video Channels, allowing Prime members to subscribe to MLB.TV and stream regular season out-of-market baseball games live and on-demand, all from the Prime Video service.

• WWE said it would move its global headquarters to a new office complex in Stamford, Conn, where WWE is now headquartered, to “allow the company to bring together its operations, including its production studios and corporate offices at its new site.” The move is expected to take place in early 2021.

• “Inspired by the intersection of past and future,” Foot Locker is launching the Discover Your Air Network, featuring “cable network-inspired programming for the ultimate sneakerhead” filled with Nike Air Max content, news and product. People will be able to view DYA Network content on Foot Locker's Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Snapchat channels.

•NBA2K League has unveiled the match-ups and tournaments for the second season, with $1.2M prizes Begins 4-2.

• ESPN and UFC have extended their deal, naming ESPN+ as the exclusive distributor of UFC Pay-Per-View events in the U.S. through 2025, beginning with UFC 236: Holloway vs. Poirier 2 on April 13. UFC’s alliance with ESPN, which began in January, also has been extended through 2025

• MLB and the MLB Players’ Assn. have unveiled numerous changes to the game to be installed over the next two seasons that will impact game length, marketing broadcast partners, the All-Star Game and the Home Run Derby. Full story here.

October 3, 2017: Coming off what has arguably been the most active and high-profile off-season in league history, the NBA is getting good news on the financial court.

Sponsorship spending on the NBA and its 30 teams hit a record $861 million in the 2016-17 season, a 7.8% increase from the previous season.

Although the increase does not match the NBA’s 8.1% sponsor spend increase from 2014-15 to the 2015-16 season, it exceeds both the projected 4.3% increase in overall 2017 sports spending and 4.1% increase in overall North American sponsorship spending, according to research and consulting firm ESP Properties (formerly IEG), Chicago.

More good news for the league: ESP Properties projects that the NBA will see sponsorship dollars "skyrocket" during the 2017-18 campaign mainly due to the new eight-year, $1 billion deal with Nike as the league’s official on-court uniform provider (replacing adidas) and the beginning of a three-year trial period during which teams are allowed to sell ad patches on game jerseys for the first time in league history.

Even as such all-stars as Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony, Kyrie Irving, Dwayne Wade, Isaiah Thomas and Paul George were signing with new teams, more than half of the NBA’s teams 30 franchises signed jersey ad-patch deals.

The pacts are led by the defending league champion Golden State Warriors three-year, $60 million contract with Rakuten, the Los Angeles Lakers three-year, $40 million deal with Wish, Goodyear’s $30 million three-season ad patch alliance with the Cleveland Cavaliers and GE’s $24 million three-year deal with the Boston Celtics.

The NBA’s partners have steadily increased spend over the past several years, from $799 million in 2015-16, $739 million in 2014-15, $679 million in 2014, $642 million in 2013 and $610 million in 2012, according to the NBA 2016-17 ESP Properties Sponsorship Report.

Among NBA deals last season, Jack Daniel’s signed "the largest partnership with a professional sports league in the brand’s history," making it an official marketing partner of the NBA, WNBA, NBA Development League and USA Basketball.

The NBA also signed Gatorade as the title sponsor for its Developmental League, a pact that begins with the upcoming season.

The NBA, however, is second among the Big Four sports in U.S. in this area.

According to research firm Statista, which provides information to companies and universities around the world, global sponsorship spend on sports topped a record $63 billion in 2017.

The most active sponsors of the NBA (league and teams) last season were State Farm (81% of properties with a sponsor in the insurance category reported a sponsorship with State Farm), Anheuser-Busch Inbev (71%), Gatorade (58%), Tissot (55%), FanDuel (48%), adidas (48%), Kia Motors (45%), Coca-Cola (45%), McDonald’s (39%), Lexus (39%), Uber (39%), Toyota (39%), PepsiCo (39%) and MolsonCoors (39%).

The most active categories were insurance (4.0, meaning insurance companies were four times more likely to sponsor the NBA than the average of all sponsors), automotive (3.8), retail (3.8), beer (3.5), medical (3.4), QSR (3.4), lottery and gaming (3.3), banks (2.7), sports apparel and equipment (2.6) and telecom (2.5), according to the NBA 2016-17 ESP Properties Sponsorship Report.